Roses for Rachel

Chapter 27.

                  

My heart leapt hearing that Calvin was ok, but then it immediately dropped when I realized that he'd just lost his father. Calvin was now an orphan.

"Oh, thank god." Tessa whispered, holding her hand to her chest.

I glanced at Lexton who also seemed incredibly relieved, but at the same time she seemed to have made the same realization that I did because her face was still full of sorrow. Seeing how she so clearly felt strongly for Calvin too, made me have conflicting emotions of jealousy, but also I felt sympathy for her. The weight of my ring on my finger told me that her feelings would go unreturned, which made me feel bad. My only interactions with her had been pleasant and she seemed to be a genuinely good person.

Feeling a little more relaxed now that we weren't in any imminent danger, I excused myself to shower, needing to get all of the blood washed off of me so that I could feel like a human again. After me, each of the other girls took their turns and then we all picked a bed. After a few minutes we ended up pushing three of the beds together and all sleeping together. After all of the crap of the last few hours, our differences seemed pretty small and it felt better to be close to people, especially when you'd close your eyes and see carnage and pieces of bodies moving around on the ground.

Eventually we slept.

Two whole days ended up going by down in those bunkers while the guards worked on clearing the castle of any other hostile rebels. Pedro didn't tell us much when he spoke to people on the outside, but he did say that Castrum de Petra was in full lockdown from any other places. He said that it just wasn't safe to let people come and go as they pleased anymore, especially since one king had already been killed, and I agreed.

I wouldn't say the girls and I got close, but we did learn not to completely hate each other. Greer and I were pretty much back to the way we were before we came here, and I found that Tessa was actually pretty funny when you're not on the other end of her jokes. We had no other choices for entertainment but to talk, so we kind of had to accept each other. Lexton was still pretty quiet, but I liked her anyway. She didn't feel the need to fill every bit of silence with pointless words the way Tessa and Greer did.

On the start of the third day we finally got the all clear, which was good because we were dangerously low on food. The bunkers were made to keep vampires alive, not humans. There was a very limited supply of actual food, and I was beyond sick of wearing my same bloody dress.

We were all a little jittery as we left the bunker and made our way back out into the main castle. The other girls broke off, going to all stay in Tessa's room, while Pedro ushered me away and to the elevators. "He needs you." Pedro said as we road up to level 6.

It had been hard when we were walking through the corridors, not to notice the burn marks in places on the ground, and the smoke damage to walls. It was obvious that there had been plenty of death all around.

I got off the elevator, then turned back to look at Pedro. "You coming?" I asked and he shook his head as the doors began to close.

"He doesn't need me." He smiled.

I walked over to Calvin's door but the guard in front of it shook his head, pointing over to the king's door. I bit my lip as I turned and entered the king's suite. Everything looked the exact same, but somehow it felt entirely different now. I looked around for Calvin before I went over to the study, sticking my head in.

He was sitting in a chair facing the empty desk, his back to me.

I felt my nerves, and so much sadness roll over me as I came to his side, looking down on him in the chair. His hair was wild, and his clothes were ripped and bloodied, making his hollow expression only that much more heart tugging.